Avalaible on Amazon.US and Amazon.UK. as well as all the other iterations of Amazon out there.

This fantasy novel was just released last night on Amazon, and is now available world wide. It definitely has a military slant to it, and I typify it as Military Fantasy, a term I had heard didn’t exist at a DragonCon panel three years ago. Readers who like the Refuge series will love this book. I believe that even the die hard military scifi fans of Exodus will love it. It definitely isn’t fairies and unicorns. The battles are dirty and intense and much like my space opera ground battles, only different.

Now I know that the rabid Exodus fans will be complaining that I’m putting something out that is not Exodus, lol. Sorry, but many more Exodus books will be coming out, probably another at the end of September. And this book, in its original iteration at least, was written many years ago. So, I’ll tell you the story behind this novel.

Back in 2004, or was it 2005, I wrote a fantasy called The Chronical of Connor McMenamin. I showed it to several friends who were big time writers, and was told I wouldn’t have any problem selling it. Well, I sent it out to the three publishers who at the time were accepting unsolicited manuscripts and received form rejections. Unfortunately my friends weren’t aquisition editiors. Book 1 was the first part of a trilogy. When I started self-publishing I decided to not put it out, since I didn’t have time for another series. Fast forward seven years or so, and I decided to revisit the idea, only twenty years earlier in the series and with another cast of characters. And so this book was born, starring Connor’s father, King Rory. I did thorough research on the people of the ancient world, and came up with a jumble of groups and their ancient gods. I noted that most peoples of the ancient world were eventually conquered and absorbed into some other group. I didn’t want this in my world, so I came up with the idea that the Gods protected their own. Wars were possible, fringe lands could change hands, but the core lands were jealously guarded by their deities, who had more power on their home territories than any invaders. The other idea was that gods gained their power from their worshippers. Not a new idea at all, dating back to the days of the pulps, in fact. The third idea was that of the Walking Gods, former deities who had fallen from heaven when they lost most of their worshippers. Super beings, greater than human, with some of the divine in them still. But mortal, capable of dying. The novel came to about ninety-five thousand words. I started self-publishing with other works and never had time to send it out, and again, didn’t want yet another series until I was finished with some that were already out.

I brought a couple of chapters of The Lich’s Horde to a workshop, where it was critiqued and commented on by a big time editor with a major company, as well as a major award winning writer. The editor liked it, but had some problems with the mixed mythology and some of the formatting. Now, I learned to write by reading other writers, and didn’t have all the Chicago Manual of Style rules down. So I bought the manual and started learning. The funny thing is that even following those rules exactly has led to some arguments with other professionals. Go figure. It’s a no-win situation. I went in and changed a lot of the background, cleaning it up. I also talked with a big time agent at the workshop, and thought that I had nailed down someone who had represented a bunch of best selling authors. As soon as I had the novel cleaned up, and brought it to under ninety thousand words, cutting unmercifully at the agent’s recommendation. I finally got it off to her and waited. And waited. Four months after I sent it off I pinged her, and was told that she didn’t have the copy I had sent her. The copy she had acknowledged receipt of when I sent it. I sent her another copy and waited, and waited, and pinged again, three months later. She replied that she had read it several times and just couldn’t get into it. Which meant she would not represent the book. Funny thing about agents. If they don’t love it, they won’t try to sell it. Try doing that in retail and see how long you last.

I had also seen the editor several times over the last eighteen months, and he hadn’t asked about the novel. Even when I mentioned it he didn’t express any interest. At the workshop he had said that he wanted to see it first before any other house. Now, no interest, zilch. So I decided I didn’t want to have to wait the year to year and a half to get this published if I sent it to their slush pile. And possibly receive a rejection letter after waiting a year. I already have a traditionally published book coming out that the publisher and his editor love. I mean love. The editors comments are that she loves this scene, that scene, the other scene. They love it so much so that we are going to do a third book, beyond the two book contract. I have given up on the other publisher, the one I had always dreamed of doing a book for. As another successful independent author friend has said, they know where I am if they want to talk. I no longer have the time or energy to pursue them.

The story? A Death God kills the worshippers of his brother, the Sky God, and gains power. The Sky God falls to earth and becomes a Walking God. The nomads under the control of the Death God go on a campaign to conquer other lands, other peoples, and throw other Gods to Earth. With the power of their evil deity behind them they are able to conquer the cores of other lands and depose their gods. The Walking God travels to the lands of a king who hates his gods for allowing his wife to die in childbirth. The same king, Rory McMenamin, that the last wizards in the Western world are traveling to see to seek refuge. Because divine magic users, read that as priests, hate the idea that someone else, read that wizards, could actually control as muc power as they do.

The setting is not the traditional high fantasy world, where the armor that great great granddad wore in the same as the current characters are using. Things have progressed, and most are at a Renaissance era of technology. The book is full of action, huge battles, pikes and muskets, cannon and knights, verses nomad horsemen and an undead army they have raised from the fallen of the lands they have conquered. I went over it, added in twelve thousand more words (thanks, big time agent, for asking me to shorten it to a point where it didn’t meet my requirements for a published novel.). In reading it, while doing the rewrite, it was like I was reading a new work, and frankly it excited me. So, if you like hard and gritty fantasy, no unicorns or faeries, but definitely some demons and a lot of gross ass zombies, this might be the book to you.

I’m heading to DragonCon tomorrow. This could well be my last one, since the crowds are wearing on me, it’s expensive, and quite frankly the expense is not advancing my career as I had hoped. I can only get a couple of panels a year. I understand. They spend big bucks on big name guests and they have to get them in front of the fans. But two panels is just not enough. I could possibly do two smaller cons next year that would offer more exposure. But I am going this time, and will have after action reports to blog about in the coming month.

Currently the book is listed on Amazon.UK as Low Fantasy. I don’t even know what in the hell that is.

This is going to be a quick post, since I have to be up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready and head to the airport. Another trip to Las Vegas in in my immediate future. I’ll only be in that city and environs for three days, then it’s off to Death Valley, Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon (several locations), Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods and Canyonland. I will be filming the entire way on a pair of Gopro style cameras, and hope to put them up a half hour at a time on Youtube. This week has been busy. I turned in a short story that will be published in Galaxy’s Edge, which will be a lead up and background to the Kinship War series coming out later this year. And I finished Theocracy Book 2, which I put up on Amazon last night. It is also on Kindle Unlimited. I figure out the other day that I’m making as much on that venue most months, so for a book like this, which will probably get at most a thousand or two outright sales, it just makes sense. It’s available on Amazon US here, and Amazon UK here. While I’m out west I will be looking at locations for several possible series to be written in the future.

So here’s the excerpt:

Shadow moved through the almost total darkness like his name. Cats had terrific night vision to start with, part of their arsenal as a night hunter. Shadow was from genetically engineered stock, with twice the visual sensitivity of his species in the dark. That was what he had been made for. The final alteration had been the quantum organic module that had been planted in his brain. It was a twin of the one his mistress carried and allowed them to communicate through all modalities, no matter the distance.

Now he was stalking through the total darkness, making not a sound, looking for prey his species had never been meant to hunt. Fortunately for him he had been created with the weapons he needed to take down that prey. Each of the claws on any paw was attached to a different gland. Each paw was able to deploy five different substances from those glands. One was a soporific that would knock just about any creature into unconsciousness. The second was a substance that caused intense pain to flow through the body of the victim. The third would put the subject into a trance from which he would respond to any suggestion. The fourth was a fast-acting poison that caused instant death. And the fifth, what was called painful death, did just what the name said.

Shadow crept up the pipe he had found in the wall, his whiskers making sure that his body would fit. His ears were zeroing in on the human moving on the other side of the wall, whispering words. The cat knew about human communication devices. In fact, whatever Alyssa knew, so did he, on a much simpler level.

The cat came out on a small ledge, looking up and down the corridor. The human was moving along it, his helmeted head looking left and right, at the floor, but not up. Never up. What could be waiting up there in the darkness to harm the Marine? Shadow lay perfectly still, not moving a muscle, his vision unerringly picking out a vulnerable spot where the helmet overlapped the neck covering. It would take precision to strike that spot, but precision was something the cat had in abundance.

Painful death, came the command in the cat’s mind. Shadow didn’t really like that method of dispatching the foe. But it was the one his mistress was calling for, and she must have a reason.

Shadow made his leap as the man passed below. His hind paws, claws out, landed on the skinsuit, their razor-sharp carbon fiber digging in slightly, just enough to give him purchase. He brought his forepaws up and drove them into the uncovered region at the back of the neck. All ten claws penetrated, but only the middle talon on the left actually injected anything. Sure that the poison had gone home, Shadow pushed off from the man, twisted in the air, and landed on his feet, taking off at full speed down the corridor. He took a right at the next cross and was into the darkness, gone.

The Marine grunted as the claws drove home. His legs went out from under him as the poison sped through his body, landing in a trembling heap. And then the agony hit. The man opened his mouth in a scream that wouldn’t end until his heart stopped five to ten minutes later. A few seconds after that his brain function would stop as the enzymes in the poison ate the neurons. There would be no coming back from that.

* * *

“What in all the hells is that?” asked Griisla as the faint screams sounded in the distance. It sounded much like a sentient being that was being burned to death. But all of his people were here.

“Shadow just made a kill,” said Alyssa, a troubled look on her face.

“With what?” asked the captain. “A flame thrower.”

“It’s called painful death,” she told the Maurid. “Something to put the fear of God into those religious fanatics. I don’t think they’re going to be moving incautiously from here on.”

The Maurid continued staring at her. He shook his head, then walked on, leading the party down the corridor.

“What next?” asked Patrick, walking beside the woman.

Alyssa was still linked with the cat, though this time she was only using half of her concentration, letting Shadow pick his own way through the maze. “Next we kill another. But this time instantly. And painless.”

“Then why subject the first one to such torture?”

They could still hear the Marine screaming in the distance, along with the yells of the men who had found him.

“They will fear the dark,” she said with conviction. “From here on they will be taking their time looking for us.”

The monk looked like he still didn’t like it, but he nodded his recognition of the solution she had come up with.

Recently, I had the honor of appearing on the Stories for Nerds Podcast, co-hosted by my old friend, Raphyel Jordan. The podcast can be found here. I met Raphyel as Superstars Writers Seminars about four years back, and always make a point of meeting with him at DragonCon every year since. This year, over dinner, I was told about the podcast he was running. It seemed to be quite popular, since they were booked up for the rest of the year. I asked about going on, and was told they could possibly get me on at the beginning of 2018. It happened, and the Podcast can be found online, going up today, along with my interview and a blog I wrote about magical weapons and artifacts.

Forward to 2018, and we set a possible date of late January/early February. I was planning a book release for January, the fifth book of the Refuge series. Not my most popular series, but the people who like it seem to really like it. I filled out the interview form they would post and checked out my equipment for my second ever podcast. Now, I’ve done one in the past, an interview on the changing landscape of publishing hosted by Moses Siregar. My friends Kevin J Anderson and David Farland were also featured on that cast. We had a lot of problems on that one. Firstly, my computer didn’t link properly, or Skype wasn’t connecting, or something, and I had to attend by phone. Then the roofers I didn’t know about showed up (I rented, and the landlord made no mention of putting on a new roof) and we had the sound of men scrapping the old tiles off. Still, it went forward, and I think it went well, all things considered.

Now I have my own house, and anyone on my roof during a podcast is an intruder, and will be dealt with as such. I was ready to go on. I had my expensive gamer headphones that I never use, my camera plugged in, all tested and working. I connected to Raphyel through Google Hangouts and his smiling face appeared on my screen. On his end, nothing. I brought out another set of headphones and a separate mic, and still, nothing. Finally I got my camera working, and the other hosts were on. I could see them. Eventually I could even hear them, but they still couldn’t hear me. Great, I thought. Raphyel handed me an opportunity and I blew it. The clock was ticking. I was supposed to go on at 10 PM, Abby and Scott, the co-hosts, were ready, and I was dropping the ball. There was some message about my mic being blocked. Finally, I unplugged my mic and headphones, and everything worked. Unknown to me, the camera had a mic in it, and it connected up just fine.

So we were off, at 10:30PM. Since the podcast wasn’t live (something I didn’t know when I first logged on) we were fine, and I found out that I wasn’t the first person who had problems getting on. But it was happening. The podcast wasn’t all about me. They had other segments, news, opinions. I thought all of the hosts were interesting people. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with them at Cons. After the initial problems it went very well. Maybe I might be invited back, if I promise to keep my tech simple.

I hung out with the team for about a half an hour after the cast, just talking. I have to be glad I don’t have a lot of internet friends I can sit and talk to online, or I wouldn’t get anything done. Facebook is bad enough. So, go check out my friends’ podcast and site, Stories for Nerds, for all the latest news in books, movies and sports. Well, maybe not sports. But all the stuff we nerds like.

Coming soon, Theocracy: Book 2. Also, I will be starting a Youtube channel with travel videos, movies of my workspace, and lots and lots of cats. I will be travelling to Nevada, to travel around that state, Utah and Arizona, filming my travels to put on the you tube channel. Stay tuned.

People have told me in the past that they have not been able to find all of my books. If you read my space opera, then all of the books of that type will eventually appear on the ‘People who bought this also bought’ list. However, you won’t find my fantasy or near future scifi there. So here it all is, at least what I have so far, with links to their individual Amazon sales pages. All are also available on Kindle Unlimited with the exception of Machine War 3. It will appear on KU in a couple of months. Hope everyone finds this helpful. And to those with new Kindles, try one of my books. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

The dates alongside each book is the year it was written, not the publication date. The earliest any book was published was December 13, 2011. when both The Deep Dark Well and The Hunger were published. Right now I am sitting at just over 4,000 reviews on Amazon, with a 4.6 * average. On Goodreads, a little harder Audience, I have 4,166 ratings with a 4.12 * average.

Books by Doug Dandridge

Science Fiction

The Deep Dark Well Series

The Deep Dark Well: (2004) An Adventure 40,000 years in the making. Pandora Latham was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama. She’s used to landing on her feet, even when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and 46,000 years in the Future. Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the Empire that once ruled the stars. Her decisions will set the path for Galactic recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.

To Well and Back: (2013) Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore Galactic Civilization. But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the Galaxy their own. Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.

Deeper and Darker: (2014) Pandora Latham is on the warpath. Watcher, her lover, and the only man who can once again unite the Galaxy, is a prisoner of the Totalitarian government of the New Galactic Empire. The Empire thinks they have the upper hand, but they have never faced someone like Pandi, and the peoples of the Galaxy that she has rallied to her cause.

Theocracy: (2011) A young gunpowder era monk becomes the only hope for his doomed world as he is caught up in the game of empire between two more advanced cultures.

The Exodus Series

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1: (2010) The introduction to the Exodus Universe. Two thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home. Now the greatest power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran Empire. Until the enemy appears once again at the gates. And the years have not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2: (2010) The saga continues. The Ca’cadasans attack at the moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic. There are other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed humans. And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the position he most dreads.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: (2013) Sean is rescued, but he is not about to go back to the safety of the capital without striking back at the Ca’cadasans who have invaded his Empire. But will his decision put the lives of thousands at risk, as well as risking the safety of his own Empire, by depriving it of its leader.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: (2013) Sean is crowned Emperor, and attempts to organize the Empire for war against the Ca’cadasans. But he finds that planning battles and winning battles are two different things. Defeat follows defeat. Can anyone snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Or will the new Emperor fail before his reign even really begins.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger: (2014) Cornelius Walbroski enters the rigors of Ranger training, becoming one of the augmented warriors of the Empire. But his first assignment, Azure, is one of the most deadly planets in the Galaxy, even prior to the coming of the Cacas. Can Cornelius survive his first mission? Or will a promising career end before it really begins?

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle: (2014) Sean and the Empire need a victory before human morale goes completely into the black hole. He develops a plan to bring the Ca’cadasans into battle in space of his choosing. But the Cacas are not an easy opponent, and they have plans of their own, for the Donut.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 8: Soldiers: (2015) The Cacas have been ejected from Imperial space, for the moment. But millions of citizens of New Moscow are still held captive in death camps in their former empire, processed for rations for the large aliens. Sean is determined to save as many as he can, and the Fleet and Army are prepared to carry out his directive; free the prisoners at all costs.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 9: Second Front: (2015) The exploration mission sent around the edge of the Ca’cadasan Empire has found the other Empire at war with the large aliens. They are not as expected, and Sean must order his military to perform actions that could vilify him in the eyes of his new allies.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy: (2016) The Fenri, all but beaten, have not given up, and their new plan promises random death and destruction in the Empire. The Cacas have launched a new offensive against the Klavarta, and their new commander is much more intelligent than the last.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: (2016) Day of Infamy: The Ca’cadasans come up with a bold new plan to destroy the heart of the Empire, and the gigantic station that is the source of the New Terran Empire’s technological edge. Using their own newly created wormhole, they will deep strike into the Supersystem. The result could doom the Empire.

Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova: (2015) When a civilization is discovered that has a special ability that would be of tremendous benefit to the Empire, great excitement is generated. When it is found that a nearby blue giant star is due to supernova in less than a year, destroying that world, excitement turns to a frantic race to save as much of that species as possible. And enemies from the past, lurking in space, bring forth a new war to the embattled Empire.

Exodus: Machine War: Book 2: Bolthole: (2016) The Machine Intelligences are back, with a vengeance. While the Empire is busy fighting a war of survival against the Cacas, the murderous killing machines they had created hundreds of years prior are now ready to strike back. And the Imperial stronghold of Bolthole is in their sights.

Exodus: Machine War: Book 3: Death From Above: (2016) The Machines are on the move, their planet killers headed for Bolthole. The human fleet is outnumbered and outgunned. But the humans have some technological tricks up their sleeves, and the genius of an unconventional commander. Will it be enough?

Other Scifi

Diamonds in the Sand: (1998) When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere to find out what really happened. The scientist was working on Nanotechnology, a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob. There are too many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love. The Army had made Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been unleashed by the new technology?

The Scorpion: (2006) The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. Kestral McMann had been in on the kill. Now The Scorpion is back as a mind upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United States. McMann is the only man who can stop him. But can McMann survive the threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age?

The Shadows of the Multiverse: (2005) Something has been periodically wiping intelligence from our Universe through the ages. It’s back, and it’s up to three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from Monsters from another Dimension. Can they learn to use the powers of their unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for billions of years?

Afterlife: (2010) What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions? And what if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you want? And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war on you, meaning to destroy your reality? What would you do? Afterlife, a tale of survival at all costs.

We Are Death, Come For You: (2011) When aliens strike the Tau Ceti colony, humankind knows that something bad is on the way. They prepare as best they can, but will it be enough against superior technology? The aliens are death worshippers, and only the extinction of the human race will satisfy their evil intent. There are wonders of tech on the horizon, but can they be deployed in time? Or will humankind have to depend on the smallest of their techs to save them?

Fantasy

The Refuge Series

Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1: (2010) A nuclear war in Central Europe opens the gates between dimensions, sending millions of Earth Humans into a land of myth, archetypes and fantasy. The Evil Emperor of the Ellala Elves sees the humans as energy to fuel his transformation to immortality. But the humans have brought their own weapons with them, as well as a race of Demigods who will battle the fantastic armies of Refuge. The war is on, and only one side will ultimately survive.

Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2: (2010) The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military and capture the civilians. And the humans find that their weapons will soon cease to function. So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they use it with a vengeance. Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods. And the other peoples of the planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an Ancient Prophecy. But will it be enough?

Refuge: Book 3: The Legions: (2012) The human invaders are now without their technologies, at least those using explosives and internal combustion engines. But they still have knowledge of many other techs, especially the arts of warfare as practiced by the greatest infantry of the ancient world. Will it be enough to stand up to the half lich Emperor and his magical forces.

Refuge: Book 4: Kurt’s Quest: (2014) When the evil half lich Emperor sends his minions on a mission to find the Crown of the Lost Gods, an artifact which can control the minds of millions, it is up to Kurt von Mannerheim to stop them. Along with his fellow immortal, Jackie Smith, the human Physicist/Mage James Drake, the Ellala Ranger Fenris and the Grimakan Priest Garios, they must head to the frozen north to foil the plan, and ensure that the evil artifact never sees the light of day.

Refuge: Doppelganger: (2006) Set thousands of years after the arrival, Kurt von Mannerheim, the Immortal Emperor of the Imperium of Free Nations, must give up everything to save his Empress, the Elfin Princess Gwenara Elysius von Mannerheim. The world is at a crisis point as the Evil Tarakesh Empire, under its Immortal Emperor Heinrich Stuppleheim, prepares to overrun the world with its Nazi Ideology. And Kurt must face a creature of legend that may prove too much for even his physical and mental abilities.

Other Fantasy

The Hunger: Abused wife, drug addict, prostitute; Lucinda Taylor had been victimized by men all her adult life. Left for dead by her pimp, Lucinda was turned by a passing vampire. When he is destroyed she becomes a free agent, slaking her hunger for blood on the bottom dwellers of society, the type of men who once victimized her. The crime boss of Tampa is her next target, and the City by the Bay is about to become a bloodbath. But can Lucinda avoid those who are hunting for her; the Priest, the FBI man, and a pair of Vampires who would like nothing better than to send one Avenging Vampire forever into the dark?

Daemon: A Steampunk Fantasy. The world is dying, the victim of the magic used by society for the last three hundred years. Daemon Corporation thinks they have the answer, stealing the life from other worlds, bringing from other dimensions the intelligences that inhabit them for sacrifice on Earth. But something has come with them, a force that is killing the employees of Daemon Corp. It is up to Forensic Mage Detective Jude Parkinson to find a way to stop the unstoppable, while keeping the head of Daemon Corp from silencing him to keep the dark secrets of the company out of the public eye.

Aura: Triplets are born on a world where the magical Aura decides the fate of its owner. Ariel is a girl with more than double the normal Aura, destined to become a mighty Priest or Mage. Aiden has a less than normal Aura, and is destined to be a soldier or laborer. While Arlen has no Aura at all, and is seen as an abomination in the eyes of the Church of Baalra the Dragon God, which has no power over those with Negative Auras. Fate will rip the siblings apart, then bring them back together as they battle to defeat the Dragon God and leave the Evil Empire, before Ariel is taken as the Avatar of Baalra, his mortal vessel on Earth.

Books with other Authors:

Five By Five 3: Target Zone: Novellas by New York Times Bestsellers Kevin J. Anderson and Michael A. Stackpole, along with Prometheus Award Winner Dani and Eytan Kollin, Baen Author Sarah A. Hoyt, and Exodus Empires at War Author Doug Dandridge, make this a must have book for the military science fiction aficionado.

Bellator: An anthology of military science fiction and fantasy, with my Exodus: Empires at War story Slacker.

As stated in the last post, I wrote Refuge: Doppleganger trying to stick to the follow a few characters format, unlike the original Refuge novels. And again it was rejected, with comments about how I was just rehashing the same old stuff that had been done before. Look, I had steam trains, steam pistols, and airborne infantry, as well as squadrons of dragons. I think I could almost pass it off as a steampunk, novel, maybe. It was anything but rehashing the same old stuff. But I came out of that experience knowing that the only way I was going to get this idea across was to go back to the beginning. So I came up with the idea of telling the story of how humans came from our world to this one. And since Kurt was an immortal character, there from the beginning, he would be the main character of the novel. Of course, I ended up putting in a lot of characters, again churning out a Harry Turtledove kind of book. In 2009 I started on the worldbuilding for Exodus, and in 2010, while working for the State of Florida full time, I completed a two hundred thousand word novel each in the Exodus and Refuge Universes. I also wrote Daemon, Afterlife, and We Are Death Come For You that year. The last three novels were to be for submission to agents and publishers, but Exodus and Refuge were written to either be self published, or sold after I had been traditionally published. I knew at two hundred thousand words both were too long for first novels. When I went the self publishing route in 2012 I decided that both books would be published independently, but still felt they were both too long. The solution? Split them into two novels each, which required putting in a section at the end the first installments of both novels to make up a climatic end. This caused some people to think that the first installments, especially Exodus, were merely extended introductions, and there might be some truth to that assertion.

I put out both Exodus and Refuge out in 2012. Late summer for Refuge, fall for Exodus. I thought Exodus was a good story, one that reminded me of the old time space opera I loved, but with the technical detail I wished they had. I hoped it might do well, but didn’t really expect much of it. Refuge though. Refuge was the book I had been developing for over a decade. It was, in my opinion, the more imaginative of the two. I thought it was more of a risk, since it crossed genres, with elements of fantasy and military techno thriller. I was sure it was going to be the series that would allow me to become a full time writer. It sold well enough, and people snapped the first book up when I offered it was a freebee. And then Exodus took off, much to my surprise, before I could even do a promotion. Since those first two books of each series I have put out three more Exodus books, and only one new Refuge. I thought maybe people who liked one would like the other, since I love all the fantastic genres, science fiction, fantasy, even horror. Turns out that some people love scifi and can’t stand fantasy. I have one fan who loves Refuge, thinks its one of the greatest series ever, but hates Exodus, which she calls techno geek.

I still have hopes for Refuge, that eventually enough people will read it and love it. Right now Exodus is still my bread and butter. Exodus has sold 55,000+ copies over five volumes, while Reufge had sold just over 10,000+ in four volumes. This year I will try and put out three more Exodus books, and one from Refuge. I feel that I have an obligation to at least conclude the first part of that series for the people who read it. I really hate it when authors give up on a series that I love, just because not enough other people do. I know in the economics of the business that is the proper thing to do. It is not what I will do. Refuge will get at least five books before I put it to rest, not including Doppleganger. Then I will put the series to rest for a time, always hoping to revisit it.

In other news, Exodus 6 is written and through the first revision. I am planning on releasing the novel on April 27th, two days after I put book 1, with a new cover, on promotion for five free days. Anyone who has not read Exodus, this is your chance to get the first book for free. And two days later the series will grow to six, which means a lot of reading ahead.

The next several years I tried my hand at writing short stories and sending them to what magazines were then in operation. I also wrote Diamonds in the Sand, the first novel of mine that had any merit. I have self-published it, and have received some good reviews, if not great sales. I toyed with some other projects, a couple of nonfictions, a murder mystery, a horror novel, basically many projects that came to nothing. The only one I completed was a novel called The Chronicles of Conner McMennamin: The Eirish Flight, planned as the first of a trilogy. I may come back to it someday, when I have time. The first chapter was read by some professionals and pronounced worthy. In 2003 I got divorced and was really devastated. I thought life was over, and retreated to Tallahassee, where I had spent a decade before moving to Alabama for graduate school. I thought I could spend all of that angst and depression in my writing. I was able to finish one novel using the Hemmingway method of writing, meaning daily work while heavily sedated on alcohol. That novel was The Deep Dark Well. But mostly I didn’t do much for that first year as a divorced male. Until I straightened my life out and quit drinking, something my doctor had been recommending for the year, due to its effect on my diabetes.

After The Deep Dark Well I wrote The Shadows of the Multiverse, and then decided I needed to do another fantasy novel. I really didn’t care which genre broke me into publishing. I wanted to get published, thinking that after I had become a success I could switch to whatever genre I wished. So I decided to revisit Refuge, only this time I would take a different approach. Instead of an epic on the scale of Robert Jordan, I would concentrate on fewer characters and a single storyline, more of a traditional novel. The Immortal Emperor Kurt von Mannerheim, introduced in the earlier Refuge novel, would be the protagonist. My spiritual path had diverged from Christianity, and I had developed the mindset that all religious traditions had worth. So in this version of Refuge, all followers of any of Earths religions would get the same benefits and adverse effects as Christians. I did more world building, keeping the original maps with some changes, and added another couple hundred thousand words of background and description. More drawings, this time of the capital city of Ataponia, of the major rooms of the palace, the armor of the soldiers, as many details as I could think of. I changed some of the technology, adding steam engines to airships and naval vessels, kept the pantheon of Gods intact, and wrote the novel. This was more of a Howard, in the tradition of Howard and Burroughs. I was very happy with it, and sent it off to the three publishers that took unsolicited manuscripts, Baen, Tor and Daw.

I received two form rejections and one personal one. Now, I had received two detailed personal rejections on The Deep Dark Well, and one on The Shadows of the Multiverse, so I thought I was making progress. All of those personal rejections had talked about how good the stories and characters were, ending in that dreaded phrase, ‘not for our market’. This rejection only talked about how it was obvious that this book was just like so many other fantasies they saw that used Elves, Orcs, Trolls and such. And my thought was, they just don’t get it. I had even talked about how the humans had used those terms for the natives of the planet because it fit their archetypes. I would hold onto that thought when I came back to Refuge in later years. So I put Refuge back on hold and started work on something else, determine to one day give the idea another try. I didn’t know at the time what changes I would make, only that there would be some.

Recently I was asked on this blog why Refuge: Doppleganger is so disconnected in time from the rest of the Refuge series. I have been asked this question before, and thought this was a good time to answer it, and at the same time tell the story of my early writing career, and how it did not go as planned.

In 1996 I was discharged from the University of Alabama Clinical Psychology Program, just short of going on internship and getting my PhD. I only needed that internship and to complete my dissertation, and I would be able to add the honorific Dr to the front of my name. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. At the time I put all the blame on them, and have since come to realize that I definitely had a part in it. Newly married and looking for work, I was able to get a job at the Tuscaloosa Drug Treatment Center, a methadone clinic, as a counselor. One day the clinical director, who was also the only other therapist at the center, told me I was spending too much time with clients, and should just show them videos while catching up on my paperwork. I told her that she might have a better handle on things if she did, in fact, do therapy. I was fired that day. Ouch.

So I went home, really pissed at the University of Alabama, the Tuscaloosa Drug Treatment Center and the field of mental health in general. I sat down at my home computer, opened up a word doc, and proceeded to write an expose’ about the whole ‘damned crooked enterprise’ as I thought of it at the time. In two weeks I wrote eighty thousand words, and had my first book. Another two weeks to polish it up and I sent it to agents in the Writer’s Marketplace. I didn’t get much interest, which I now see as a good thing, as that book, even with names changed, might have hurt a lot of people. But the seed was sown. I had proven that I could write a book. In fact, it had proven much easier than I had thought. I had always wanted to write a book, and here I had done it. So I immediately started on my first work of fiction, an alternate history titled The Convoy. Now The Convoy was very well researched, tightly plotted, and totally awful. The dialogue was the worst part. Years later I looked over the manuscript, hoping to self-publish it, and decided it would take more work than writing two new books. I finished the novel and sent it off to a major publisher, expecting to get a fat check in the mail within a month. A year later I got my rejection letter on this turkey.

For my second work of fiction, I decided to write an epic fantasy. But not just any fantasy. After getting married, I was exposed to church again, and the concept of witnessing and saving souls. So I wanted to write a fantasy that promoted Christianity. I came up with the idea of Earth humans whose ancestors had been transported to another dimension, a world of magic. The idea was that all of the myths, legends and archetypes of our world would exist in this world, Refuge. And that people who still followed the old Earth religion of Christianity would be immune to the truly awful effects of magic, though they would also be deprived of the benefits. I could go into all the authors who influenced the development of this world, but suffice it to say that the major influences were Tolkien, Turtledove, Howard and Robert Adams and his Horseclans novels. I decided that the different races would not be good or evil in and of themselves, but could go to either extreme through their own decisions.

The hero of the novel was an Orc named Morgathius, who, though a Christian, and so supposedly unable to use magic, was also the Orc of the Millennia, the most powerful natural magician of his people. I had planned for him to become the new Messiah of this world. The novel was titled The Cross, The Quest and The Sword. The plot revolved around Morgathius going on a quest to the Valley of the Gods, a location on the Kraslas continent guarded by thousands of undead, mummies, ghouls and zombies. Instead of a small party like most such stories, an entire brigade of IFN (Imperium of Free Nations) cavalry would ride through the wilderness, supported by airships, and explore the valley, looking for the sword, a God artifact of Arathonia. The novel was in the form of an epic with many characters, switching scenes from the quest to the many battles going on in the escalating war between good and evil, between the IFN and the Nazi Empire of Tarakesh.

That novel topped out at 269,000 words. At the time I didn’t understand that most publishers really didn’t want anything over 120K words. I decided to send this one to an agent, and searched the classified section of Writer’s Digest to find one interested in taking on new clients. Now, I can’t way that all agents advertising in Writer’s Digest are crooked, but the one I contacted sure was. He first suggested that I use a book doctor he recommended, at the cost of over a thousand dollars. I balked at this, and he said he couldn’t represent me, but suggested another agent in California, Royal Gillette. Remember that name. If this man ever contacts you, run, as fast as you can. But at the time I thought I had hit the big time. That this book would hit the bestseller lists. I had already done quite a bit of world building. Pantheons of Gods, maps, histories, magic systems, you name it. If you look on my website, http://dougdandridge.net , you will see many of the original maps I drew for the novel, including continents and hemispheres. I wrote a million words of background and descriptions in Treepad. And I started to work on the second novel of the series, The Ravening Blade. This was the book where my Orc hero was to make the ultimate sacrifice and become the Messiah.

My agent sent me letters, talked to me on the phone, and basically stroked my ego. I was told a good tale, about how they were dissecting my novel page by page, sending samples to large publishers, and preparing the product for a major push. Then came the scam, though I couldn’t see it at the time for what it was. I was told it would take it three thousand dollars to make the presentation, but the agency could only come up with a little over $2,500. I volunteered the rest, sure that it would be a good investment. Two weeks later I received a letter from the parent agency of Mr. Gillette, informing me that they were moving operations from California to New York, and would be communicating to clients with their contact information shortly. That was the last thing I ever heard of them, and a search for the agency yielded no results. I was soured to the whole idea of submitting to agents, and would not do so again for over a decade. And the idea of Refuge died, at least for the moment.